Michael Mery also won the open 37th District Court bench of retiring Republican David Berchelmann on Tuesday, after losing his misdemeanor court bench in the 2010 Democratic primary.

Incumbents from both parties — including Democrats Mary Román and Ron Rangel, who cruised to easy victories — worried that voters would consider party affiliation over qualifications. If there was going to be a wave, candidates said beforehand, they didn't know which way it would flow this year.

Although partisan waves have been consistent during the past four years in Bexar County, the pendulum has swung in both directions. In 2008, aided by President Barack Obama's first election, Democrats Ron Rangel and Antonia Arteaga knocked out longtime Republican incumbents rated highly by the local bar association. Two years later, all 21 contested races for state district courts and county courts-at-law resulted in GOP wins.

This year was the first in which every judicial race on the ballot attracted candidates from both parties, to the dismay of some who groused that opportunists with less experience or interest in campaigning were hoping to rely on uninformed straight-ticket voters.

Political newcomer David Canales, a 2006 law school graduate who will take McElhaney's bench in the 73rd District Court, was the only victorious candidate Tuesday who was neither an incumbent nor a former judge.

“I worked hard, and I think my hard work has paid off,” Canales said of his victory, explaining that he put his family law practice on hold for a year as he battled a primary opponent and then the incumbent. “Was I trying to ride the coattails? No, absolutely not. I think I did a lot of groundwork that helped me get to where I'm at.”

For many lawyers, partisan loyalties end when it comes to judicial races, said Jay Norton, president of the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. While party affiliation makes sense for those creating the law, it can be irrelevant to those at the state district court level, whose sole job is to follow the law, he said.

“They're not making legislation on immigration or health care. They're dealing with peoples' lives,” Norton said. “It's really a shame people don't know more about the judges, because judges impact peoples' lives even more than the legislators do.”

The sole Republican to retain her bench Tuesday was juvenile court Judge Laura Parker. She spent nearly $184,000 this year, saturating local television stations with ads, and still eked out a lead of just less than 1 percentage point over Democratic candidate Stephen Smith, who raised less than $1,000.